Lancashire League Handbook 2021

19 Grimshaw and John Fielding they fell short by just 3 runs which meant Church took the honour of the Lancashire League Presidents Cup. The statistics for the 2020 season will be classed as cup performances, the top amateur run scorer was Josh Gale with 241 runs from 5 innings and a top score of 101. Travis Townsend made most runs as a professional with 250 from 5 innings and also with a top score of 101. Jonathan Whitehead of Lowerhouse had 217 from just 3 innings with and average of 108.5 and a top score of 124. With the ball Muhammad Zuhaib of Crompton took most wicket with 12 with 5 others coming next with 11. In the Second eleven competition, the groups mirrored the Senior divisions. Ramsbottom, Accrington, Clitheroe and Todmorden won their respective divisions. Clitheroe proved too strong for Accrington at Chatburn Road, chasing down the visitors 140 for the loss of 7 wickets thanks mainly to 54 not out from Eli Smith. The other semi final at Scott street saw hosts Walsden amass 206 for 8 from 34 overs with wicket keeper Colclough making 68. In reply Ramsbottom were 100 all out. Walsden hosted Clitheroe the following week and win the toss, batted first but were 79 all out in 18.3 overs thanks to a superb 6 for 25 from Assad Mehmood. However Clitheroe weren’t allowed an easy ride and lost 6 wickets in reply, making the winning runs in the 28th over to take the trophy back to Chatburn Road. Top run orders in the 2nd team competition were Jonathan Lord of Walsden with 216 from 5 innings, Charlie Atkinson of Clitheroe with 189 and Phil Haggerty of Lowerhouse with162. Six bowlers took 10 wickets at the top of the 2nd team chart, Nadeem Ashraf of Rawtenstall, Adam Masood, Gt Harwood, Mo Bux of Todmorden, Assad Mehmood of Clitheroe, John Punchard of Crompton and Saud Ahmed of Clitheroe. The 3rd eleven competition saw one group of seven and two of six. As the season could not commence until August there weren’t enough free dates to progress to play offs as in previous years so the winner of each group were provided with a trophy with Walsden, Lowerhouse 3rd and Clitheroe 3rd being the recipients. Harry Richard of Clitheroe was top run scorer in third team matches with 219 runs and Jamie Jones and Will Nicholls, also both of Clitheroe took most wickets with 12 each. As we look forward to the 2021 season, we welcome Greenmount Cricket Club into our membership and consider application for ECB Premier League status. Cricket in the county of Lancashire has evolved at quite a pace in the last few years and hopefully we, as a League, will continue to develop accordingly. At the time of writing, we are advised by LCF that we should prepare for cricket as normal. There will be issues, adaptive cricket will more than likely be how we are allowed to start the season but hopefully our experiences from 2020 will help us and in September we can look back to having had a great summer of exciting cricket.